"Yes, Watson, nothing less than a hole in space, a gateway to another time and on the other side, an Island. Whats your opinion, Professor Challenger?"

"As you would say, Holmes, the games afoot. I suggest we make ready for a landing. Looks like Lord Greystoke and Quatermain are about to leap ashore ahead of us."

Strangely enough, I've recently been reading Chaosiums latest edition of Cthulhu by Gaslight and whilst it doesn't go into Steampunk tech in detail, it is a cracking sourcebook for a campaign set in the Victorian era.

A few possible ideas using FC and SC along these lines. You might find helpful.

Common Talents:

Methodical. A dogged detective who likes working through mysteries.

Savage. You were raised by wild animals or a primitive tribe, isolated from the modern world.

Common Specialties:

Aristocrat. Could be a Landed Peer of the Realm.

Archer. In this setting, the Archer is replaced by the Hunter (eg Alan Quatermain) with Rifle WP instead of Bow WP.

Sailor. Perhaps the Captain of the Tramp Steamer. Two fisted, with a taste for whiskey.

On the Island itself, maybe have strange monsters and cyclopean ruins where the angles don't quite look right...

Logged

Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother.And my sister and my brotherLo, there do I see the line of my people Back to the beginning.Lo, they do call to me.They bid me take my place among themIn the halls of Valhalla Where the brave may live forever !!!

The captain is already written up - he is someone that the players' earlier characters have already met.

I still remember when they looked at the Captain through aetheric goggles, and saw a huge wolf thing towering over him... which nodded at them.

The folks that the players have already met -

Capt. Jebediah Bowdoin USN (ret.), USMM. Eyes glow in dim light, different colors depending on angle of illumination. Seems to ignore cold weather, native of Eastport, Maine USA. Tall, thin, white haired, muttonstache.(When they last met him he had a goatee.) A clear Maine accent and an air of command.

The PCs had a bit of a surprise when they viewed him through Aetheric Goggles during The Moloch Engine arc.

Cmd. James Answertruth Lt. USN (ret,), USMM. Short for a man, tall for a dwarf, Capt. Bowdoin's chief engineer. Served with him in the tail end of the ACW. Short, barrel chested, despite age his hair and short beard are still a deep roan. Can crack his knucles loudly enough that they can be heard across the hold.

Pretty much exactly what he seems to be - a short (hu)man of Scots ancestry, native to Maine, a solid engineer.

While James Answertruth is human, there are dwarfs in the setting, but they are clannish and insular - primarily of Germanic origin, Maine does have a settlement, as does Pennsylvania. Fewer than you might expect headed west during the California Gold Rush of '49, though more will take part in the Yukon Gold Rush of 1897. Dwarfs are not bothered by a little snow....

The Auld Grump - as of 1888 dwarfs and ogres have made their return, as have both elves and goblins - but those two are keeping their return a secret. Elves are closer to dark elves than Tolkien's folk.

Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother.And my sister and my brotherLo, there do I see the line of my people Back to the beginning.Lo, they do call to me.They bid me take my place among themIn the halls of Valhalla Where the brave may live forever !!!

No, for the elves think manipulators and assassins - more than willing to use magic to crush a politician's free will.

Not PC material.

At this point the PCs are terrified of the goblins in London Below - they were chasing a bad guy down into the Underground and got to see him get sliced to pieces by what looked to be small children with very sharp knives - only their glowing red eyes visible to belie their childlike appearance.

The ogres have been back for almost a century - only the Swiss know about it, all the rest of the world knows is that some of the Swiss soldiers have gotten very big.

And, at that, the ogres are much smaller than they used to be, and quite happy about it. (With greater size came greater... hungers.)

Both the ogres and the goblins were cursed by the elves.

The goblin gate under London reopened only a few years ago, but there were a fair number living under the city that had never left.

The goblins that had remained were and are not entirely pleased by the return of their hag queens.

Doing a call back to the last campaign that I got to play in, creating the great grandfather of my character in the O! Canada! campaign. (The sum total of what is known about that ancestor is that he died in the Yukon.)

How about during gunfight, the drilling machine disturbs a Wendigo. Lights go out, temp drops and people are stalked by something unhuman.............

Logged

Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother.And my sister and my brotherLo, there do I see the line of my people Back to the beginning.Lo, they do call to me.They bid me take my place among themIn the halls of Valhalla Where the brave may live forever !!!

How about during gunfight, the drilling machine disturbs a Wendigo. Lights go out, temp drops and people are stalked by something unhuman.............

I already have plans for the Wendigo - something that possesses people rather than a monster in its own right. Thou we know what it looks like when viewed through aetheric goggles. (Tall, starved looking, long lank hair, red eyes, and no feet...*)

One of the mining camps will be targeted by the cannibal spirit during a long, long, arctic night.

The PCs may or may not be there when it happens - the date is fixed. If they are not there then they will likely find the results come spring, and only one of the folks from the camp still alive - with a strange glitter in his eyes. His wife and kids the first to die, and the camp folk carried him into their camp thinking that he was lucky to have survived whatever happened. They carried their deaths with them into the camp.

There is also... something... that comes with the aurora, and cuts off heads, leaving the bodies behind. 'Speaking' in whistles - for this reason it is bad luck to whistle while the lights are in the sky. I do not use the Cthulhu mythos in this setting, but some of the local myths will come close.

The area covered will go from the Yukon to Iceland to Greenland.

One of the other items likely to come to light is a journal by a man named Arne Saknussemm... and a compass that behaves strangely.

For the whistler, check out "Oh, Whistle and I'll come to you" by M R James. Other possible sources might be the Terror by Dan Simmons and Dark Matter by Michelle Paver.

« Last Edit: October 21, 2012, 06:46:06 AM by snake »

Logged

Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother.And my sister and my brotherLo, there do I see the line of my people Back to the beginning.Lo, they do call to me.They bid me take my place among themIn the halls of Valhalla Where the brave may live forever !!!

Heh, I should have thought of the derelict ship in the ice! The closest I came was stealing a scene from the epic(?) poem The Cremation of Sam McGee. Not quite the same thing. (A comedic scene with undead. Who just wants them to shovel on more coal before they leave.)

Consider it incorporated.

The Yukon scenario is set much later than I normally go with - typically I run 1866 to 1888.

The whistle with the aurora is taking to myths about the northern lights and combining them - there were beliefs that there were bad things that came with the lights, and other beliefs that the aurora itself is alive, and will come closer if you whistle.

And given that some Inuit magic is musical... if you have the right sequence you will find that both myths are true.... Yep, another Gate opening, and this one to a bad place.

This actually ties in with the stars are wrong in the first arc that I mentioned - the ship sailing through a massive gate as the aurora coruscates around it.

I have read The Terror - it was one of the seeds, but not Dark Matter. I will have to look for it.

Unconnected with the above - a chase across the top of a train in the the Yukon in winter sounds like fun, doesn't it?

Thanks for the incorporation. Nice to see my ramblings have some benefit

As to the chase on top of the train. Yes definitely. Slippery ice on train roof, dodging branches of pine trees (Reflex Saves like mad).

For added inspiration, I'd go with the film Breakheart Pass.

Sorry so many film or book references but its the way I tend to build adventures moving outwards from a central idea, incorporating other sources as I go.

Also maybe Journal of A.S. (and compass) could be found on the derelict ?

« Last Edit: October 24, 2012, 06:54:13 AM by snake »

Logged

Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother.And my sister and my brotherLo, there do I see the line of my people Back to the beginning.Lo, they do call to me.They bid me take my place among themIn the halls of Valhalla Where the brave may live forever !!!

At the Hallowe'en party I ran a game for the Scoobypunk gang. Eighteenth level characters.... Oi!

The action moved to the haunted castle that the Classic Fey magus inherited in the last game of the campaign. (2009....)

More than a bit borrowed from Canterville Ghost, with a touch of Gaelic Ghosts thrown in.

The person playing the Classic Fey magus literally did a happy dance when he learned that I was going to run the Scoobypunk game. I guess they missed the campaign....

And, no surprise, there was again no combat. The Soldier did threaten someone with a shotgun though. (The accompanying quote: I'd hate to have to use this on you. *Aside to the GM* I really would, too - the gun isn't loaded.)

One plot involved bringing one of the ghosts back to the castle - the silver chased skull that was its 'fetter' having been stolen by an unscrupulous museum owner. (Yep, Mr. Withers from the museum, and he'd have gotten away with it too, his second appearance....)

Three magi in one party, all of different traditions (still using Elements of Magic: Mythic Earth).

It was a great deal of fun, and it makes me want to run a Son of Scoobypunk campaign.

Lo, there do I see my father. Lo, there do I see my mother.And my sister and my brotherLo, there do I see the line of my people Back to the beginning.Lo, they do call to me.They bid me take my place among themIn the halls of Valhalla Where the brave may live forever !!!

Decided to cheat on the 'Son of Scoobypunk' game - I will run it for the teens game. Some of those players are the sons and daughter of some of the original Scoobypunk gang. Some of the characters will be as well.

Set in 1899, the Scoobypunk Kids are young. We are talking early teens.

One is half fey - the child of the Classic Fey mage, from a timeout that he had due to a spell fumble.

One has been raised as a Christian Magus since birth - her mum is also a Christian Magus, belonging to The Salvation Army. Her da is Irish Catholic. (And things are getting messy in Ireland.)

Two Magi this time, we will see what the other kids come up with.

For some of the background info I am punting - for info the players will have to ask their parents, who played in the original campaign. So, instead of telling the previous players not to tell the new players anything they are being encouraged to tell war stories.

***

Meanwhile, I am running the first scenario of the original Scoobypunk game for some new players - they have played D&D, but that is it.

One died in the opening encounter - he wanted to know what the folks that had asked them to leave 'their' table were talking about. Too close when the bomb that killed the four Ribbonmen and the MP went off. Too bad, he had picked up some good information.

The rest of the group had no idea that he was there. since he used a potion to be invisible. His dead body was found in the ruins, along with the Ribbonmen and the MP.

The three remaining PCs are now suspected of being Irish Republican sympathizers. (No IRA as yet - they are called 'Anarchists' instead.) The death of a British MP in Ireland is a bad thing to be tied up with.